Special Interview with Prof. Marina Y. Konopleva
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignancy of the stem cell precursors of the myeloid lineage (red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells other than B and T cells). Thus, it is important to develop new and evolving therapies that raise hope for improved survival and less toxic treatment.
In May 2022, Prof. Marina Y. Konopleva published the article Venetoclax resistance: mechanistic insights and future strategies in Cancer Drug Resistance and attracted the attention of many scholars and experts in this field.
On August 10, 2022, the Editorial Office was honored to invite Prof. Marina Y. Konopleva to share her latest research in the field of leukemia. In the interview, she mentioned that "leukemia is a tough disease to cure", thus, her team is working on finding out more effective treatment for the majority of patients. She also shared other advanced therapies, such as targeted therapy and immune-based therapy. At the end, Prof. Konopleva concluded by sharing the current research hotspots and her cutting-edge perspective on AML.
Details of the Interview
Q1. We know that you have been working on leukemia for a long time. What motivates you to keep working on this? Do you and your team have any latest research progress on it?
Q2. The article Venetoclax resistance: mechanistic insights and future strategies published in 2022 has attracted many experts’ attention. It has almost 700 views and over 170 times downloads since its online publication on May 6, which is an excellent achievement for a newly published article. Could you please share with us what facilitated you to do more research about multiple Venetoclax-based combination therapies? Are there any challenges during the research?
Q3. You mentioned in the article that "the most feasible option currently is a 'shot-gun' combo approach aiming at avoiding resistance through the rotating nature of chemo- or immune-therapy agents with different mechanisms of action, aided by Venetoclax as a universal sensitizer." Could you please tell us more about the "shot-gun" combo approach?
Q4. Also, you mentioned that "immune-based therapy is another promising approach, given its theoretical efficacy across genomic subsets". Is that an emerging treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML)?
Q5. As an outstanding scientist in leukemia, can you talk about the current research hotspots in this field?
Q6. What do you think of the future prospects in acute myeloid leukemia?
Introduction of Prof. Marina Y. Konopleva
Prof. Marina Y. Konopleva was a Professor and active member of the clinical faculty at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in both the Department of Leukemia and the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation. Now, she has moved to Einstein-Montefiore Cancer Center in July 2022 as a Professor in the Department of Medicine (Oncology) and Molecular Pharmacology; Director of Leukemia Program and Co-Director in Translational Blood Cancer Institute. Prof. Konopleva is working on novel agents in acute myeloid and lymphocytic leukemias, focusing on BCL-2 targeting and agents targeting the leukemic microenvironment and metabolism.
The interview with Prof. Konopleva is really significant as it brings more advanced academic ideas to the scientists in the field of leukemia. In the future, the Editorial Office will continue to invite more scholars to share their ideas and achievements and work on publishing high-quality articles to help advance research in cancer drug resistance.
Respectfully Submitted by the Journal Editorial Office
Cancer Drug Resistance
